Drakensang - Review Flood 2

Gorath

Gorath

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The next bunch of reviews mixes things up a little bit more. Everything's in German.

  • Stern.de article based on 3 interviews (mainstream press, similar to Newsweek)
  • Select 8.5/10; pdf download
  • Daddelnews rating: "good"; "the best texts since PS:T"
  • Eurogamer.de 7/10 good buuuttt...
  • GamesTM 8.5/10 (print; the article about Game PR and the retro piece on the Eye of the Beholder Trilogy are very interesting)
  • OnlineWelten 74%; rather negative; "not intense enough" (transscr.)
  • gBase.ch 8.5/10
  • 4Players 73%; very critical; (but 10% more than expected ;) )
  • Golem.de no rating; very positive; video & HD-video
  • AreaGames 80%; hardcore TDE perspective
  • Vitivi.tv video review in coop with AreaGames
  • Ulisses-Spiele forum savegame editor; saves are in SQLite format!
More information.
 
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So is 80% good in Germanland?

'coz 80% us on the low end of the scale for mainstream American reviews, really.
 
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Depends on the publication. What makes you think 80% is good over here?
 
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I didn't, I was asking.

So since most reviews hover around the 80% range, does that mean the same thing as here, namely that the critical reception is tepid at best?
 
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Tepid? No. 80% is good but not perfect. Great would be high 80s to low 90s. Most reviewers think twice before they go beyond 90. High 80s is pretty crowded though.
The reviews are clearly positive. It loses a few percent because it lacks comfort funtions and just about everything could have been even better/faster/deeper/earlier. Apart from that it´s a good game.
It´s exactly as I predicted a year ago: There´s nothing to worry. Just don´t expect the 2nd coming. It´s even quite hardcore for a modern game. I would have expected more mainstream focus.
I have no doubt most international reviewers will hate it though.
 
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tepid = half hearthed, lukewarm
 
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Gorath said:
No. 80% is good but not perfect. Great would be high 80s to low 90s. Most reviewers think twice before they go beyond 90. High 80s is pretty crowded though.
Click to expand...

Aye, makes sense, that's more like the ratings we use at GameBanshee than the ratings mainstream sites use, where the best games each year get 100%, 95% is good, 85-90% is average and everything under it is bad.

Gorath said:
The reviews are clearly positive. It loses a few percent because it lacks comfort funtions and just about everything could have been even better/faster/deeper/earlier. Apart from that it´s a good game.
It´s exactly as I predicted a year ago: There´s nothing to worry. Just don´t expect the 2nd coming. It´s even quite hardcore for a modern game. I would have expected more mainstream focus.
Click to expand...

That's the impression I have from covering it and playing around with the demo (with my insufficient knowledge of German), good-but-not-great, solid-but-not-special.

No harm in that, it'll be fun to return to Avonturia if nothing else.
 
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German mags review German games generally more negative. It's still our good old post WWII self-hate. Everything from Germany must be mediocre in Germans eyes. Its a pity.

The usual negative points are bad graphics (which is hilarious, I find it gorgeous to watch all the landscapes, the details) or 4players said its too easy (hello? did we play the same game? after the first half the difficulty raises a LOT. Or they said there arent really interesting quests, and again I suspect the tester has only played a few hours. Drakensang has some small problems, but nothing to justify anything under 80%. I read the reviews from 4players and Eurogamers, half of their negative points were outright lies, like only cutscenes have voiceover, which is simply a lie.

RPGs always have their difficulties in reviews, these days I stopped to give a damn.

Drakensang breathes atmosphere, it looks great, has original and funny plots and characters, everything a RPG should have. Its not perfect, but for every roleplayer its damn good. A pity many reviewers just arent roleplayers, apparently. I mean, what can you expect when a tester seriously bemoaned the game was too big, or the spell names in German sound silly? A GERMAN tester! Those testers are a bunch of idiots.
 
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elikal said:
German mags review German games generally more negative. It's still our good old post WWII self-hate. Everything from Germany must be mediocre in Germans eyes. Its a pity.
Click to expand...

That was opposite in case of two worlds. German sites gave it high scores while english sites gave it mediocre ones.
 
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zakhal said:
That was opposite in case of two worlds. German sites gave it high scores while english sites gave it mediocre ones.
Click to expand...

The same is true for the Gothics IIRC.
 
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JDR13 said:
My thoughts exactly, although there are actually people on these boards that think a score in the high 80's is close to "mediocre".
Click to expand...
In the English gaming media, almost, which is why the question about German ratings was asked.

This is metacritic's guide to what their aggregate scores mean:
Code: 
[B]General Meaning of Score        Games      All Other media[/B]
Universal Acclaim               90-100     81-100
Generally Favorable Reviews     75-89      61-80
See something weird here? That's right, score inflation. That's why review scores are taken with a bag of salt.
 
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In elementary and high school they teached everyone the 4-10 system:
4=>failed
5-6=>bad
7-8=>average
9-10=>good

One reviewer once said abt his scoring that first number of xx tells the caregory (bad,med,good) and second what quality of the game is in that category (bugs,etc). Not sure how it is in other countries but thats propably how genpop here thinks.
 
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The A-F system is also fairly common, but I understand your point.
 
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I find that most games that score around 80 on the big American review sites are just that: good. I can't understand anyone thinking 80 means bad.
 
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Nah, the 60's were great!! :) I think I even remember them. lol
 
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